World Celebrates but Remains Divided on Iraq’s Future

People and governments around the world Sunday finally found something about Iraq to agree on: The capture of Saddam Hussein was a good thing.

In Britain, where an enthusiastic Prime Minister Tony Blair announced the news hours before U.S. officials confirmed it publicly, youthful Iraqi exiles celebrated on Edgeware Road, the heart of London’s Arab immigrant community.

In Tel Aviv, where memories of Hussein’s missile attacks in the 1991 Persian Gulf War remain vivid, the owner of a beauty salon handed out celebratory candy to her customers.

And in the European capitals that led opposition to the war, leaders put the best face possible on news that undercuts their criticism of U.S. postwar policies in Iraq.

French President Jacques Chirac declared through a spokeswoman that he “rejoiced” over Hussein’s arrest.

“It is a major event that must strongly contribute to the democratization and the stabilization of Iraq and permit the Iraqis to regain control of their destiny in a sovereign Iraq,” Chirac said.

President Bush did not include Chirac and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder among foreign leaders whom he called to inform about the capture of the former tyrant. The fact that the president of Poland, a military partner in the Iraq coalition, did get a call from Bush on Sunday suggests the bitterness of the feud pitting Washington against France and Germany, which are theoretically close U.S. allies and leading European powers.

Schroeder nonetheless sent a congratulatory note to Bush. It read: “I have learned about Saddam Hussein’s arrest with great joy and I congratulate you on the successful operation.... I hope the arrest will boost the international community’s efforts to reconstruct and stabilize Iraq.”

Paris, Berlin and Moscow, all staunch opponents of the war, complained last week that the Bush administration intended to freeze them out of Pentagon contracts for Iraq’s reconstruction. But their diplomats said the end of Hussein could be an opportunity to end international rifts over Iraq -- and they urged the U.S. to speed the hand-over of sovereignty to Iraqis.

French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin said he would meet with a visiting Iraqi delegation today and offer French assistance with humanitarian aid, police training and economic cooperation. He also said he had called U.S. Secretary of State Colin L. Powell to congratulate him, but he renewed his calls for the United Nations to be granted a central role in the Iraqi transition.

The capture of Hussein “is an encouragement to the international community to regain its unity,” Villepin told journalists. “Today there is a path to the reconstruction of Iraq.... All of us must engage it by involving the countries of the region to reintegrate Iraq in its environment and giving the United Nations its rightful place to guarantee the legitimacy of the process.”

Russian Foreign Minister Igor S. Ivanov echoed Villepin’s hopeful words, saying, “We expect that Hussein’s arrest will help improve security in Iraq and intensify the political settlement process in the country with the U.N.’s active involvement.”

But other Russians said Iraq’s problems were not over.

“This will not affect Iraqis’ future,” Dmitry Rogozin, a member of the nationalist Homeland bloc, said on the radio. “If the Americans see fit to present this as their success in Iraq, I believe this would be an apparent exaggeration. The ... warfare that is being fought against Americans and other occupation forces is no longer associated with Saddam Hussein, [Osama] bin Laden or Al Qaeda. This is simply a struggle with occupiers.”

The tone couldn’t have been more different in Israel.

“Saddam was caught! Saddam was caught!” Haim Cohen, 40, sang to his 6-month-old daughter while tossing her up in the air during a stroll in Tel Aviv. “I’m so happy.”

In a nearby cafe, a mother of two said she had been waiting for this day since Iraqi Scud missiles rained down on Tel Aviv in 1991 and forced residents to take refuge in shelters with gas masks.

“Because of Saddam, I know what it’s like to fear so much that your body shakes and you can’t control anything,” said Shuli Rahamim, 37. “Ever since he dropped those bombs on us in Tel Aviv, I’ve been wishing him bad fortune daily.”

The Iraqi exiles in London were also celebrating the abrupt end to years of dread.

“There’s a great party going on here today -- everyone is very happy,” activist Ahmed Shames said. “There was the psychological fear of Saddam’s return that hindered the reconstruction process.”

A few hours later, a pro-Hussein Palestinian incurred the rage of the jubilant exiles with an ill-timed comment and was pursued by about 15 men into a restaurant, where employees pulled him to safety after a scuffle.

Not everyone exulted over the video images of a shaggy, shattered Hussein in captivity. In Brazil, the Globo news agency compared the video released by U.S. forces to the images of American soldiers captured by the Iraqi army during the war.

“The American forces exhibited, as a trophy, images of a man almost 70, with tangled hair and a long beard,” an unsigned editorial said. “No one can forget that, behind his fragile appearance, there is a past of tyranny. But complaints that the video of the captured dictator ... are a violation of the Geneva Convention may soon be heard.”

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Times staff writers Achrene Sicakyuz in Paris, Janet Stobart in London, Jeffrey Fleishman and Christian Retzlaff in Berlin, Kim Murphy in Moscow, Ken Ellingwood in Jerusalem, Hector Tobar in Buenos Aires and Richard Boudreaux in Mexico City, and special correspondents William Wallace in London and Tami Zer in Tel Aviv, contributed to this report.